Play This is back…sort of?

Play This Magazine is back in action!

Since the creator will no longer be working for his previous post as newspaper editor, Play This will be updated at least once a week. While you may be used to our entertainment columns, news and reviews, Play This will be now instuing an advice column on job searching after college. For any thing you would like to know before we start to publish our new type of articles, e-mail us with questions at evolutionfreelancemedia@gmail.com.

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You can still find us on Myspace and Facebook as well.

Play This game: Mob Wars

EvO's Mob war profile via Facebook

editor @playthismag.com

Although the game may not look like much and is not visually exciting, Mob Wars provides a great deal of boredom killing fun. Although Zynga has a newer version, the concept of Mob Wars has been around for at least a decade stemming all the way back to our faithful TI-83 graphing calculator.

This game is a Web based, Play This will not hold it to the same standards as the next generation consoles games.

Pictured below is a display of the current amount of property editor EvO has.

*”Office hours cause us to have to much free time… this is my main solution”

Mob Wars is not a game that you have to put much time into it, which makes it great to go back and forth to as you have time to kill. Obviously you would not be wasting your time when at home when you can choose Bad Company or Left 4 Dead (review up this week).

Simply buy as much property as you can, fight when you have a few moments and pull in as many mobsters as you can.

The biggest difficulty in the game is starting up, once you are pulling in a good amount of cash flow you can basically just deposit your money once a day. Second pain in the ass is getting your mob to epic proportions. Most of your Facebook friends hate you for sending them all those invites, so the best bet is to add random people into your limited friends profile.

More tips listed below…

The replayability keeps you coming back and ranking up is easy as pie. A great boredom killer but in the full view of Web games it’s only so-so.

We give this game a 4/5 burritos.

*Tips:

When purchasing properties, buy 10 at a time for each time you buy something it’s value goes up.

Do not attack people with mobs larger than yours… but do attack ones closet to your skill for the most experience.

Check out a persons stats before you attack, if they have a casino there is a better chance of them having more money.

Before depositing money, try to purchase as much as you can because the 10% tends to hurt.

Any questions you may have about this game, EvO the editor would be happy to assist. Get at us at editor@playthismag.com

Creation of satellite radio giant or giant piece of trash? Sirius XM inc. falls short

editor@playthismag.com

At only 15 cents a share currently (Dec. 5) the newly merged satellite radio company Sirius XM has put a new face on radio. In the early days of Sirius it was more so the cooler older brother, where as XM was the younger stale virgin who acted to old for his age.

So what happened when these two companies merged? A poor business decision to spew XM concepts all over Sirius listeners. Although most of the stock market is falling, the day the merger was fully signed and dated, stocks fell a huge amount.

A majority of the channels were combined with XM stations, which means new DJ’s (have been on XM) most of whom suck. When first deciding between the two providers it was pretty obvious for us, as XM had a smaller selection and even their channel names were uncreative. Sirius had names like Faction, Boombox 51 and Octane (all of which still exist) where as XM only had stations called, rock, rap and so on… nothing spiffy there. While a majority of Sirius is beginning to change Faction remains to be one of the only great stations left, even Octane has a new whiny voiced DJ promoting crappy rock. It seems like the days of uncensored greatness of Sirius is being taken over by whiny bitches from XM.

We want our dirtied up older brother back. Not some replacement trash that pursues more channels of Christian rock and preaching. At least they are diverse as they have a gay channel but remove E! so it’s pretty much the same thing. Prices fro the service are currently lower than the usual price, however XM owners have to pay extra for Howard Stern and a few others.

What may be good for their business does not make the listeners happy.

Play This movie: Four Christmases provides laughs and more bland holiday joy

Vaughn and Witherspoon

editor@playthismag.com

Holiday movies in the past decade have produced some of the most bland and boring films, Four Christmases is just barley above this generalization. Most holiday themed films that directly have to do with holiday travel  woes, issues that commonly happen  and of course family issues, all of which are often embellished.

[The feel good movies that are released around Holiday seasons in the past like The Persuit of Happyness are great films and are not to be confused for these slop shop films that are simply made for the holiday viewers.]

The actors in the film are oddly enough still in peak films that get quite a large bank, where as most holiday films yield actors like Tim Allen (Christmas with the Kranks: terrible film) who have past their prime. Four Christmases displaying actors from John Voight to Tim McGraw, not to mention Jon Favereau who has exploded since his directing of Iron Man. While McGraw and Favereau may have been meat heads (Vaughn’s brothers) in the movie Robert Duvall played the white trash father of Vaughn, each doing a very believable, yet over embellished role.

Acting: The acting throughout the film was great for a holiday film and of course Vaughn threw in plenty of witty humor but very well could have been upstaged by Witherspoon until she had her stereotypical feminine ideals kick in completely changing her role. 4/5

Story: This is where the film loses the audience and obviously with out a decent story line a movie will fail. The basic idea of the story is of a successful couple who are ditching their families to vacation in Fiji. Some how smog roles over the San Francisco canceling all flights for the day. A reporter notices the couple and approaches them to get their opinion on their flight being cancelled causing each of their four families to see that they will be stuck at home, causing them to instantly have seen this and call them to say they must now visit. Mix in a pile of Vaughn style jokes and Favereau beating his ass and you have a so called film. Sadly the story line was dull and boring after what felt like a stand up act on comedy central. 2/5

Soundtrack: Your basic Christmasy soundtrack, nothing special and obviously suitable for the film. 4/5

Cinematics: The camera work was good but nothing special to set this film apart from any other holiday film. 3/5

Overall: This film felt like a half assed National Lampoon film mixed in with every other bland and boring holiday flick.  As there has been nothing else of the holiday season yet to be released it will achieve a large amount of moolah it’s first week but as the others come in to play it will quickly get washed out.

Four Christmases recieves 3/5 burritos

BBB Alert: Cyber Criminals Pose as FedEx, UPS, and Wal-Mart to Trick Consumers this Holiday Season

Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to keep their guard up and their wits about them in order to fend off a new string of phishing e-mails making the rounds this holiday season.

Hackers and scammers are pretending to be customer service personnel from some of the biggest names in business—including FedEx, UPS, and Wal-Mart. Hackers are impersonating well-known companies that do a lot of business this time of year—specifically retailers and shipping companies—in order to quickly earn recipients’ trust and gain access to computer drives, files and accounts to steal personal information such as Social Security, bank or credit card numbers.

“While most of the country is spreading peace and love this holiday season, cyber criminals are spreading computer viruses and stealing identities and information,” said Steve Cox, BBB spokesperson. “Hackers using e-mail phishing messages are conning consumers by posing as trusted businesses such as Wal-Mart, FedEx and UPS this time of year to take advantage of the seasonal increase in on-line shopping and shipping of merchandise all across the country.”

Following are three phishing e-mails BBB has spotted, and that con artists are relying on this holiday season to take advantage of consumers:

Shipping
Hackers have created phishing e-mails which pretend to be from shipping companies claiming that there is a problem with delivery of merchandise. Commonly, the e-mail will include a hyperlink for recipients to click that will take them to another Web site that might install malware or solicit personal information. A message currently making the rounds has a subject line that looks like, “Subject: Tracking Number 13040065504.” The body of the message claims that a package couldn’t be delivered and advises the recipient, “To take your package back you should print the copy of invoice that is in the added file.” Of course, the attachment is actually a virus that will infect the computer if opened.

BBB ADVICE: Instead of clicking on the link in the e-mail, go directly to the shipper’s Web site or contact the company via phone in order to confirm whether there is a shipping problem with your package. Do not open attachments to unsolicited e-mails.

Surveys Offering Holiday Spending Cash
In an effort to take advantage of cash-strapped holiday shoppers, phishing e-mails are circulating pretending to be from retailers such as Wal-Mart. One e-mail has a subject line that reads, “Online Survey from Wal-Mart Stores!!!” And the body of the message states, “This survey has been sent only to a few people from our random generator!”, and “You’ve been selected to take part in our quick and easy 9 questions survey. In return we will credit $90.00 to your account – Just for your time!” Ultimately, the e-mail includes a link to a Web site where the recipient is supposed to take the survey, but in fact leads to a phishing site.

BBB ADVICE: Do not respond to unsolicited e-mails that promise money for answering surveys. Spam e-mails that offer big rewards with little effort will almost invariably cost you in the end.

E-Cards
E-cards are an extremely popular—and inexpensive—way to deliver season’s greetings to loved ones. Typically, with legitimate e-cards, the recipient receives an e-mail with a hyperlink that will take the user to the e-card which is housed on a Web site. Unfortunately, by design, e-cards are an extremely easy way for hackers to disguise their phishing e-mails and direct users to their Web sites which install viruses and malware.

Consumers should think twice before clicking on a link in an e-card e-mail as the hackers will often use logos from recognized brands and companies in order to appear legitimate.

BBB ADVICE: Phishing e-mails posing as e-cards can be difficult to spot. Spelling and grammatical mistakes are a huge red flag. Also, don’t follow the link in an e-card if you don’t recognize the name of the sender.

Consumers who receive suspicious e-mails should report them to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov.

For more information on staying safe when shopping online this holiday season, and for a host of other seasonal tips, go to http://www.bbb.org.